When Charles Spurgeon was just
a very young man, 19 years old, he was called to pastor the church
in London, England that had been previously pastored by John Rippon,
John Gill, Benjamin Keech. And the church grew rapidly. It grew so rapidly that before
long they had to consider building another place of worship, which
was to be the Metropolitan Tabernacle. And on one occasion they met
for a long time at the Crystal Palace. It's a huge theater in
London. Spurgeon preached when he was
21 years old at the Crystal Palace to 21,000 people. It's amazing. While he was preaching one Sunday
morning, some fool thought he'd play a joke and screamed, fire,
fire. And of course, folks stampeded
from the Crystal Palace. Many were seriously injured,
two died. And Spurgeon was devastated. He was just devastated. He could
hardly make himself get up. For two weeks, he didn't even
try to preach. He just couldn't bring himself
to do so. And one morning, he read Philippians
chapter two, these words, God also hath highly exalted him. and his soul was braced up with
strength, with renewed vigor, and he found comfort and peace
for himself and a message from God for the people to be preached. He went that Sunday morning and
preached on the subject Christ exalted. I want you to turn with
me tonight to Ephesians chapter five. I can think of no subject
that is more comforting, more peaceful, more assuring to the
believing heart than the fact that Christ is the head of the
church. As such, he is exalted as God's
king over everything. That's my subject this evening.
Christ is the head of the church. Our text is verse 23 of the fifth
chapter of Ephesians. The husband is the head of the
wife, even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the Savior
of the body. Now this matter of Christ's headship
is a matter of such great importance that it takes up a considerable
portion of two of Paul's epistles. Both here in Ephesians and in
the companion epistle of Colossians, Paul spends a good bit of time
dealing with the matter of Christ being the head of his church.
Back in chapter one in verse 22 of Ephesians, we're told that
God hath put all things under his feet. and gave him to be
the head over all things to the church. There he shows us that
one aspect of our Savior's sovereign lordship is the blessed fact
that he rules all things in creation, in providence, and in grace.
God teach me to know in my heart that my Redeemer rules all things
in creation, in providence and in grace for the everlasting
good of his church, for the benefit of our souls, for the good of
his people and the glory of his name. In the fourth chapter,
the apostle is anxious to promote the matter of Christian unity
He would have us to walk together as one in this world. And he
knew that there was no surer way to promote the unity of believers
than to convince God's people and remind them continually that
as believers, we are members of one mystical body of which
Jesus Christ is the head. In that chapter four, he shows
us that it is the responsibility of every man who preaches the
gospel. whether he's talking about apostles
or prophets or evangelists or pastors, teachers, it is his
responsibility to continually edify the body of Christ, to
build up the body of Christ in the faith of the gospel, teaching
us that we should speak the truth in love, that men and women may
grow up into Christ in all things, which is the head, even Christ.
Then in this fifth chapter, Paul exhorts us to demonstrate the
truth of the gospel in every aspect of life. He begins by
telling us to submit one to another. And he begins that matter of
submission by saying, wives, submit to your husbands. And
the basis of the exhortation is this, for the husband is the
head of the wife, and Christ is the head of the church, and
he is the savior of the body. Turn for just a minute over just
a few pages to Colossians, Colossians chapter one. Paul continues this
theme of Christ's headship, showing its importance. In chapter one,
verse 19, we read, he is the head of the body, the church. But read the scriptures in their
context. Always see things in their context. This headship of Christ is to
be held in highest regard by us because it's placed right
alongside the highest honors of our Lord. In the very same
breath, the Son of God is called the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of every creature. is, the Creator of all existence. And then He's the Head of the
Body, the Church. In chapter two, verse 19, we're
told that Christ is the head from which all the body, by joints
and bands, having nourishment, ministered and knit together,
increaseth with the increase of God. So this is a matter of
immense importance. And the more clearly we understand
it, the better off we will be and the more our souls will be
consoled by it. For any mortal, to assume the
title of the church's head. For any mortal to assume that
he is the head of the church is equal blasphemy to a man declaring
himself to be a mediator or a priest for other men. I would be less
shocked to hear a man say he is the creator of all things
than to hear the Pope of Rome declared to be the head of the
church. To say that the Pope is the head of the church is
to say that the Pope is the savior of the church. To say that the
Pope is the head of the church is to say that the Pope is God. The Pope of Rome is the head
of Babylon, nothing else. He is Antichrist, nothing less. Jesus Christ alone is the head
of his church. He alone is God incarnate. He alone is our mediator who
sits on the throne of God and rules the universe on our behalf. Now I want us to look just that
one thing, and I want to come at it several ways, but oh, Spirit
of God, make us to enjoy. dominion of Christ as the head
of His church. What is the church of which Christ
is the head? Now there's, in this part of
the world, and in others I reckon somewhat, but in this part of
the world particularly, there are a lot of folks who spell
Baptist with a capital big B. And they insist that the Baptist
church is the only true church, and the only church there is
is a local church. Now, I think I can safely say,
None of those men who promote that doctrine have any higher
regard for or commitment to the local church than the man talking
to you. I recognize that it is by the
local church that God's pleased to send forth the gospel into
all the world. I recognize that local churches
recognize, ordain, and send out pastors and missionaries. I recognize
that local churches administer the ordinances of baptism and
the Lord's Supper. I recognize that only the local
church, gathered together by the Spirit of God, is the place
where God meets with sinners. I highly value this local assembly. But the Church of which Paul
speaks when he says, Christ is the head of the Church, is the
whole body of God's elect. The Church of the Old Testament
and the Church of the New. beginning with Adam, continuing
through the ages of the Old Testament, through the ages of the New Testament,
and through this gospel era, unto the latter day, when finally
Christ comes again, when the last of God's elect has been
called to Him, that's the whole Church of God. All who are born
of God, All who are redeemed by the blood of Christ. All who
are called by the Spirit of God. All who believe on the Son of
God. These are the body of Christ. The church of Christ. The kingdom
of God. The kingdom of heaven. This is
the church of which Christ is the head. His family. It's called
Jerusalem, which is above. It is called the whole Israel
of God. But folks say, but the word church
means called out, assembly. That's what I was talking about.
I was talking about folks who are called out and folks who
are assembled, not assembled in an earthly place, not assembled
at an earthly altar, but assembled, as the scriptures tell us in
Hebrews 12, with the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn,
whose names are written in heaven, where Christ, our Mediator, sits
on the throne of God. Our worship, after all, is meaningless,
except we gather at the throne of God in heaven. And if we,
by the Spirit of God, gather at his throne as one body in
heaven itself, we will indeed worship God our Savior. To be
saved is to be united to Christ, the head. To be saved is to be
part of that church of which he is the head. As one with Christ,
our vital head, we act and grow and thrive, and by his Spirit,
though we were dead, in him we're made alive. There are but two
heads of mankind, Christ and Satan. If you're not joined to
Christ by living faith, then you're of your father, the devil,
that spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
Oh, tremble at that thought. Make certain your soul is joined
to Christ. Make certain that you are one
with the Son of God. Blessed is that company of men
who can say of Christ, He is my head. Blessed is that congregation
of believers who can say, honestly, we have no head but Christ. He
is our life. He is our head. He is our only
master. He is our only Lord. Now, let's
see what the scriptures teach concerning this. And I'm just
going to touch the edges. I can't begin to expand the subject. What is meant by Christ's headship
of the church? When we read these words, Christ
is the head of the church, we're taught that Christ Jesus is everything
to his church, that the head is to the body. Christ is everything
to his church that the head is to the body. He is a competent
head. The Lord Jesus Christ is competent
as the head of his church. Now, a lot could be said here.
Let me just say four or five things. First, Christ is our
sovereign and supreme head. The head has preeminence by divine
design. It is placed by nature in the
upper part of the body. As the uppermost member of the
body, all the body is below the head. Therefore the Lord Jesus
Christ was exalted as head over all things to the church, that
in all things he who is the head might have the preeminence. God
made him. preeminent over all creation
as the man, Christ Jesus. It is written of Him, Thou art
fairer than the children of men. Grace is poured into Thy lips.
Therefore God hath blessed Thee forever. It pleased God to make
Him preeminent, that He should have all preeminence. As the
triune God made Christ the head over all things for us in creation,
you and I should each personally and constantly make Christ the
head of all things in our hearts. We ought always rejoice to say,
my beloved is white and ruddy. He's the chiefest among 10,000. My soul. Make Christ every day
the head of your loves, the head of your hopes, the head of your
joys, the head of your desires, the head of your purpose. Make
Christ the head of everything. As the triune Jehovah has exalted
Christ to sovereign dominion, let him have the place of dominion
in our hearts with supreme delight. Rejoice that he is Lord. Rejoice that he's master and
bow to him in all things. As he is a sovereign head, our
Lord Jesus Christ is exactly the head we need. He is a suitable
head for his body, the church. As His body, the church, has
a human nature. God the Son took into union with
Himself our nature. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. It was necessary for Him to assume
our nature, the nature that had sinned, if He was to be the Savior
of the body. He could not suffer for us. He
could not redeem us. He could not bring in righteousness
for us except as a man. So he assumed our nature. We
should never cease to marvel that God himself should stoop
so low as to become one of us. What is man that thou art mindful
of him? Mark David was astonished. Oh
God, what is a man that you should even think of him? Or the son
of man that thou visitest him? How much more that you should
become one of us. This one who is our sovereign
head, just the head we need, is the one who supplies us with
all things. He nourishes and cherishes his
body, supplying his body with everything needed by us. He has blessed us and given us. Everything our souls need, everything
our souls can enjoy, everything God Almighty can heap upon us
before the world was, we were blessed in Him with all spiritual
blessings. Our Lord Jesus has supplied us
with all that our souls need forever. And he supplies us every
day with everything we need. We tend to murmur and grumble
and complain. God forgive me about vanity. And that's all this world is,
just vanity. We get upset about a puff of wind, just vanity. We get bent out of shape about
meaningless, insignificant things of time. Our Lord supplies his
people with every need day by day. I have over the years had a good
many folks Call me on the telephone, get my number somehow, another
pastor. I'll come by the office here
or knock on the door at the house and come begging and we do what
we can to help folks who are in need. But I'll tell you what
I've never observed. I'll tell you what I've never
observed. I've never had this happen. I've never seen, heard
of, or known of any man or woman who worshiped God come begging
for bread. I've never seen it happen. I've
never seen it happen. And don't expect to. Don't expect
to. He provides the needs of his
people. The Lord Jesus supplies us with
wisdom and grace as it is needed day by day. Not wisdom and grace
as we anticipate things. How would I handle that? How
would I deal with that? I don't know. I don't know. But
when the time comes, he gives you both the wisdom and the grace
with which you are enabled by him to meet the need of the hour. Brother James, back here with
us, spent the last two years taking care of your wife every
day and wonder how on earth what you're gonna do, how you're gonna
deal with it when God's pleased to take her. And you wait. And when God takes your wife,
he gives you the grace you need, as he's giving you the grace
to take care of. How could a man do that? I don't
know. I don't know. Anybody who knows the middle
of the misery, he can't do that. He can't take care of himself.
Whatever God sends, God provides for. And whatever comes to pass,
God sent it for you. God did it for you. He also supplies
us with guidance and direction. His promise is, I will instruct
thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide
thee with mine eye. Shelby and I worked together
all day long. We were together seven days a
week. We don't get to talk much except when we're on the road.
We were driving somewhere the other day and she made a statement
to me. We were talking about God's blessings
upon us and said, He has guided us in everything. Like the sound
of a voice in you saying, this is the way, walk in. That's his
promise. Why shouldn't we expect him to
do what he said he'd do? Why can't I expect him to do
what he said he would do? And Christ is a sympathizing
head. Our living head has fellow feeling
with his members. He's concerned with everything
that concerns us. Oh, how my soul is comforted
to know that my head is touched with the feeling of my infirmities. When you smash that finger, if
you draw back to take a swing at a sledgehammer with a sledgehammer
at a large spike and you miss the spike and hit your finger
with a sledgehammer, do you know why you know it hurts? Do you
know why you know it hurts? Because your head says so. Were
it not for the head, you wouldn't have any feeling in that finger.
He who is our head is touched with the feeling of
our infirmities. He knows our temptations, for
he was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. There is nothing you experience,
my brother or my sister. No pain, no heartache, no difficulty
that your Redeemer doesn't know by experience. Now that's hard
for us to grasp. That's hard for us to grasp. But he who bear our sins in his
body, bear our sicknesses in his body, and endured everything
we endure, everything. But Brother Don, he wasn't, he
didn't know anything about sin. No, he didn't. Until hanging
on the cursed tree, he was made sin. In anticipation of that, see
him prostrate in the garden and know he is touched with the feeling
of our infirmities, always. He feels our afflictions. Turn
back to Isaiah 63. Isaiah 63, I want you to listen
to this, verse nine. He feels our afflictions. Therefore,
he will arise to deliver us from trouble. Isaiah 69 verse three. In all their afflictions, he
was afflicted. And the angel of his presence
saved them. In his love and pity, he redeemed
them and bare them and carried them all the days of old. Oh, what a Savior our Redeemer
is. I found great joy in reading
the 25th chapter of Matthew's gospel again today. We rejoice
in heart to know that our Savior is touched with the feeling of
our infirmities, that he knows our temptations and our afflictions.
But oh, my soul, he rejoices in that which rejoices us as
well. In the 25th chapter of Matthew, he speaks to his sheep
on his right hand. And he said, come blessed in
my father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. And he said, I was hungry and you fed me. I was
naked and you clothed me. I was thirsty and you gave me
some water. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and
you came to me. When did we do that? He said,
inasmuch as you've done it unto one of the least of these, my
brethren, you've done it unto me. So that those very things
by which his people are made to rejoice, he is made to rejoice. And this one who is our great
head is our saving head. Our text says Christ is the head
of the church and he is the savior of the body. His name is Jesus
Savior, Jehovah Savior. As our head, he could not be
complete without his body. Back in Ephesians 1, the apostle
says that we are the fullness of him that filleth all in all. So that everyone united to him,
in everlasting mercy, by God's decree, by God's order, in election,
in redemption, by the Spirit of God in calling, shall be united
to him forever. For his body would not be complete
were one member missing. And he, as the mediatorial head
of his people, would not be complete were one member missing. In all
of this, we see that Christ is in every way competent to be
the head of his church. And as he's a competent head,
he is our complete head. The Lord Jesus is our representative
before God. The head represents the body. Now we use a term like that all
the time. What do you do? Counting heads. Just counting
up who's there. You're talking about people,
counting heads. Christ is our representative head. The head
for man is his most glorious part. The head for man is that
which gets most attention. The head for man is the place
of the government of his body. It's always been God's pleasure
to deal with all men in a body by a representative. All the
human race was represented in Adam and died in Adam. All the
church of God, all of God's elect were represented by Christ and
live in Jesus Christ the Lord. And Christ, our head, is our
head in a mystical sense. I mean a vital sense. Look at
verse 16 of chapter four. From whom the whole body fitly
joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplyeth
according to the effectual working in measure of every part maketh
increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. As
the head is indispensable to the life of the body, Christ
is indispensable to the life of his people. He is our life. We live in him and he lives in
us and there can be no separating of the two. The head, not only
the source of life, and the seat of government, but as I said,
the glory of the body, the chief beauty of manhood is in the head. We can't talk very much about
beautiful men, but you ladies take great care to make yourselves
look good. I try to do that, but I don't
have much to work with. But you ladies will, you fix
yourselves up, you diet and you exercise. But when everything
else is gone, you still spend a ton of time with the head.
Because that's what everybody sees. That's what everybody sees. That's the thing that captures
and mercy, and goodness, and anger, and compassion, and harshness. It's all seen in the head. Well, the beauty of God's church
is her head. And we are beautiful before God. through his beauty that he has
put upon us, even Christ our head. The Lord Jesus is one more
thing. He is our conjugal head. That
is our marital head. That's what's spoken of right
here in this fifth chapter of Ephesians, verse 23. As Eve was
taken from the side of Adam, so the church was taken from
Christ's side. He is a spouse to us, and we
are a spouse to him. In our Western society in modern
times, we know little about that. A spousal in ancient times was
considered just that close to married. I mean, just that close
to married. It was a binding thing. I remember
well when I finally got Mrs. Fortner to agree to marry me.
Up until that time, I wasn't really sure she was committed
to me. But once she accepted my proposal
to marriage, I was committed to her and her to me. We were
separated for a long time, separated for nine months. Saw each other
just twice in nine months. I was in school a thousand miles
away. But I was espoused to her. She was espoused to me. Devoted
to each other. Committed to one another. And
we wrote every day. and called every day. Usually
couldn't afford to talk more than three minutes. It's 75 cents
for three minutes, and then they'd cut you off. I'd call her one
day and she'd call me the next. Every day for nine months, committed
to each other. But we were looking forward to
something. We were looking forward to June 1st, 1969, when the marriage
would take place. And both Christ and his church
anxiously awaits with rapidly beating hearts for the day of
our marriage, called the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, when the
Lord Jesus, before wandering worlds, shall take his bride,
his church, into everlasting union with himself. as the objects
of his love, redeemed by his blood, bought by his life, called
by his grace, saved by his power, created for his glory. Oh, what a day that will be. Christ is the head of the church,
and he's the savior of the body. If he's the head, then the body
is safe. As long as the head is above
water, nothing will happen to the body. Everything is well. For Christ is the head of his
body, the church. Amen. Let's take our hymn book.